


Volatile

by bamelot89



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Hoodies, M/M, i can't believe hoodies is an actual tag omg this is great, street gangs, supernatural street gangs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-03 04:40:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1731488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bamelot89/pseuds/bamelot89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An underground organization called Nameless used to gather gifted children together and raise them to fight the monsters no one believes in.  Based on skill and potential, the children were placed in groups.  But they continued to lose more battles against the supernatural than they won.  Recently, however, seven particularly gifted children were discovered.  They took the word “gifted” to a whole new level.  They were inhuman in their skills, and Nameless had no idea what their full potential might be.  Nameless began to focus heavily on training the group they called the Miracles, and suddenly they began winning.  Then one day, after the Miracles had spent the day out picking fights with monsters, they returned to HQ to find it destroyed and deserted.  Left with no one to guide them, they split and took to the streets.  One by one they joined other gangs that had formed outside of Nameless to fight the supernatural.  All of them except one.  That one became a shadow, a rumor, and was eventually forgotten.  But he was nothing more than a ghost to begin with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kind of puella magi meets supernatural meets resident evil

Tetsuya Kuroko kept his head down and his hood up. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d said a single word to another human being, despite being around them almost constantly. He’d never had much presence to begin with, and when he wanted to, he could go completely unnoticed.

As he passed a store front filled with dolls, a familiar feeling prickled at the back of his neck. He halted and looked inside, but it was dark. Hanging on the door was a “closed” sign and he backtracked to see if there was a back entrance. Indeed there was, and when he tried the door he found it unlocked and stepped silently inside, choosing to hide himself completely.

The back of the store smelled musty beneath the much stronger scent of decay and he didn’t take that as a good sign. That meant whatever was here had probably been for a while. He pulled his knife from its sheath, hidden beneath his pant leg, and kept it at the ready. Hearing something skitter above him, he raised his head. It was a horribly disfigured creature. It had four yellow eyes encircling its head which was twisted around at a cruel angle. Its arms and legs were bent in such a way that it gave the illusion it was crab-walking. The finishing touch was a tail whose end split into two sharp points. Kuroko didn’t see a mouth, but he of all people knew that just because you couldn’t see something didn’t mean it wasn’t there. The creature continued moving across the ceiling, claws making clicking sounds as it did so.

It was an unclassed demon. Back at Nameless, it had earned the slang term “mutt” because that was essentially what it was. The problem with mutts was that you never knew what you were going to get. It could be an easy kill or incredibly dangerous. He followed it as it continued skittering across the ceiling and resolved he’d have to get it to come down somehow since it didn’t look like it was going to do so on its own. With low class demons, usually provoking them worked.

“Christo,” he said, voice echoing in the empty store.

The creature flinched, then froze and dropped half its body so it was hanging by its two back legs. A clicking sound seemed to resonate from it, though it had to be coming from a mouth somewhere. Kuroko took several silent steps and repeated the word. “Christo.”

It flinched again and dropped to the floor, body twisting violently so it landed on all fours. Immediately after landing it took off in the Kuroko’s general direction. He avoided it, taking a few seconds to watch it movements and try to get accustomed to it before striking out. This demon was speedy though, never seeming to stop moving, and his knife missed its neck by several inches. The thing shrieked then, revealing an impossibly large mouth between its four eyes.

It lashed out with its wicked tail and sliced across Kuroko’s cheek. Keeping his cool, he aimed again for its neck, but again, its unrelenting movement caused him to miss. And suddenly the creature seemed to have a better idea of Kuroko’s general location, likely due to the fact that he was now bleeding. It whipped out its tail again, this time more purposefully. Kuroko scrambled back, narrowly avoiding its sharp points.

He retreated quickly, wiping blood from his cheek onto walls as he went, hoping the scent in various places would confuse the monster. From what he’d seen, it wasn’t the brightest.

Sure enough, it began to sniff around more. If it had ad more sense, it might’ve realized that blood suddenly appearing on the walls was giving away Kuroko’s location, but luckily for Kuroko, its thoughts were dull.

When it took a particularly long time sniffing at one spot on a wall, Kuroko made a third move. This one struck home, knife sinking deep into the demon’s neck. It shrieked and thrashed, but it was no use. After several seconds, it stopped moving. Kuroko yanked his knife from its dark flesh and it landed in a heap on the ground. Smoke began rising from it, confirming it was dead. Soon it would be nothing but a pile of ash.

Kuroko poked around until he found a bathroom and nudged open the door with his foot. The stench of decay was nearly unbearable then, but he flipped the light on with his elbow and stepped inside. At his feet was a pair of dead bodies surrounded by blood that had long since dried. They had a few scratches on their arms, but when Kuroko saw their heads, he realized why the creatures mouth was the way it was. The skin had been completely peeled away from their skulls, leaving nothing but bone.

He looked away from the sight as he stepped over the bodies. He pulled his sleeve over his hand and turned on the faucet. The first thing he did was clean the blood from his knife and return it to its sheath. Then he grabbed the towel hanging by the sink and wet it down before leaving the bathroom. He retraced his steps and wiped the walls clean, leaving no sign he’d ever been there. Keeping the towel and remaining invisible, he left through the back door and continued on his way.

Several blocks later, he tossed the towel into a dumpster. Wiping at his cheek, his fingers came away sticky and he sighed. His invisibility wouldn’t last forever and it would be best to clean himself up before that. Throughout the city there were several places he could go. The nearest was a twenty minute walk. He should be able to make it that far. It wasn’t as if walking would overexert him.

The place functioned as a bar, but its true purpose was to provide support for people who killed monsters. Kuroko tended to avoid them when possible. Most people like him killed in groups, and after the splintering of his own he had been on his own. It wasn’t that he particularly enjoyed working alone; he just found it difficult to place his trust in a group he didn’t know. He was also wary because of his other ability. He was an enhancer. He could lend strength to others, though doing so exhausted him. And though there were plenty of good people in his line of work, there were just as many who would seek to abuse that power. So basically, he just found it easier to simply avoid others, for the sake of both his physical and mental health.

He could probably have snuck in, but if he was caught then things would be that much harder to explain, so he pulled his hood up and, after checking to see that no one was looking, allowed himself to become visible again before stepping through the door. It was barely four o’clock and there was almost no one there, but the few that were didn’t have the look that came with killing demons.

“Do you have a bathroom I could use?” Kuroko asked the man behind the bar.

He jerked his head up, not having noticed him come in. “In the back,” he said with a jerk of a thumb. “It’s marked as storage.”

“Thank you.”

Kuroko kept his hood up and head low until the door shut behind him. He heaved a sigh, flicked on the light switch. This wasn’t the restroom the typical customers used. He pushed back his hood and took his reflection in. He had definitely looked worse, he thought as he turned the water on and splashed his face. He grabbed a paper towel and wiped the blood from his cheek. Somewhere between late the night before and earlier in the morning he’d been following a werewolf and had tumbled into some thick weeds. The ground beneath had been muddy from an earlier storm and left splotches of dirt on his clothes and in his hair. He looked over his shoulder at the shower. Walking home he wouldn’t have cared much, but he wanted to take the bus, and if he did that it would be best to clean himself up first. He stretched his arms above his head. It was early enough that there probably wouldn’t be anyone else who would need to use the place for a while. He turned the water on and gave it some time to heat up as pulled off his clothes. He got a few more paper towels and did what he could to get the mud stains out while trying not to get the fabric too wet. Once satisfied, he tossed the paper towels in the trash and stepped under the hot spray of water. He closed his eyes and let the water wash away the day’s grime.

Typically these kinds of places would only provide a shower and a couple old looking towels, but when Kuroko opened his eyes again, he was pleasantly surprised to see soap and shampoo and, yes, even conditioner. This place was definitely preferable to any other place he’d been to.

He scrubbed away the dirt and grime from his hair and skin, and when he was finished he wrapped a towel from the stack around his shoulders, noting that even the towels were fairly soft. He pressed his face into the fabric and it even smelled fresh. Yes, this was definitely the best place he’d ever been to. He took a moment to sign in contentment before drying himself off and putting his clothes back on. He attempted to dry his hair a bit more, but gave up and left the used towel on the counter by the sink. He flipped his light off on his way out and halfway down the hallway practically ran into a small girl with short brown hair.

“Oh! Sorry!” she quickly apologized. “I didn’t see you. My dad just wanted me to check on you, he said you’d been in there a while.”

“I’m fine,” he said quietly. “I apologize for taking so long.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, waving a dismissive hand. “He said you looked kind of shitty, he just wanted to make sure you were okay. Were you out by yourself?”

“I work alone,” Kuroko said.

“Hm. My aunt used to be like that. Then one day she met her girlfriend they’ve been a team of two ever since. Are you heading out right away?”

“Um. Yes, I was planning on it.”

“Would you like to stay for dinner instead? I mean, if you don’t have anywhere else to be. My dad’s closing off the upstairs tonight and I’m already having some people over anyway—they’re all in the loop, so it’s not like you’d have to hide anything.”

Kuroko blinked, taking a second to consider. On one hand, people. She said they were like him, but they weren’t, really. He’d still have things to hide. On the other hand, food. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a decent meal, and this girl seemed friendly enough. Besides, he wasn’t sure if she’d actually let him go if he turned the offer down.

“I suppose I can stay.”

“Great!” she said with a grin. “A couple of the guys are already up there. Just take the stairs by the main bathroom. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

Kuroko stood still for a few moments after she left. He felt like he’d missed something in their conversation, but didn’t know what. Maybe he was just terrible at any sort of social interaction after spending so much time by himself.

He followed her instructions and went up the stairs. There were three boys standing together near a large fish tank talking amongst themselves. Kuroko leaned against the wall and waited for the girl to return, realizing he didn’t know her name. When she did, it was with several other guys.

“My dad said he’d order some pizzas in a few minutes,” she said. “Though I don’t see why you guys didn’t just let me make something.”

Similar looks of horror crossed the faces of several in the room.

“Hey, wait,” she said. “Did you see a guy come up here? Blue hair, quiet…”

“I’m here,” Kuroko said, not bothering to move away from the wall. The girl was only a few feet away.

She jumped back, once again not seeing him, and everyone else had similar reactions.

“Holy shit!” one of them said.

And another, “How long have you been there?!”

“A few minutes,” Kuroko answered. It had been a while, but he was used to this.

“Wow!” the girl said. “Your lack of presence is actually amazing. I bet monsters never even see you coming.”

“It has its advantages,” he said.

“Well, let me introduce you. Er—actually, I never got your name.”

“Kuroko Tetsuya.”

“Kuroko. I’m Aida Riko, and this is Mitobe, Izuki, Hyuuga, Kawahara, Furihata, Fukuda, and…where are Koganei and Kagami?”

“Oh—they said they were going to be a couple minutes late,” Hyuuga said.

She sighed. “Of course they are. Anyway, make yourself at home,” she said to Kuroko.

A couple people came over to talk to him. Hyuuga and Izuki if he remembered their names right.

“So is she trying to recruit you too?” Hyuuga asked.

“Recruit me?”

“Yeah, she’s been trying to strengthen our group, and so many people are only interested if they’ve got one of those Miracle kids, you know? And it’s difficult enough just finding people like us.”

“She didn’t mention it to me.”

“Oh? Well, are you looking for people to join up with?”

“No. I wasn’t aware she was…looking for people. Are all of you together?”

“Yeah,” Hyuuga said. “A few of the kids just joined recently, but it seems like they’re going to stick around. About two weeks ago a new kid came around looking for some people to join up with. He’s one of the guys that’s not here yet, Kagami. But you’re more of a loner?”

“You could say that. I…I had a group, but…” What was he doing? He shouldn’t be saying anything about that. “Things didn’t work out. So I mostly keep to myself now.”

“Maybe you just weren’t with the right people,” Izuki said with a smile.

“Maybe,” Kuroko said.

Just then, the two people they were waiting for showed up.

“We’ve arrived!” the smaller of the two said dramatically. Beside him was a boy who had to be well over 180 centimeters, probably closer to 190.

“Good, you’re here,” Aida said. “Koganei, Kagami, this is Kuroko. Kuroko, Koganei and Kagami.”

“You found another guy already?” Koganei said in disbelief.

“I wouldn’t say that, he was just stopping by when I got here.”

“His hair’s so blue!” Koganei said. “He could practically be one of the Miracles. When I was a kid I tried to convince my parents to let me dye my hair blue.”

“I just invited him to eat with us,” Aida said, ignoring Koganei’s last statement. “He looked a little scrawny, and we’ll have plenty of food anyway.”

Kuroko frowned a little and readjusted his jacket. He didn’t like people noticing things about him. He wasn’t used to it.

Until the pizza arrived, there was a lot of small talk, and it carried on like that for a while after, too. Kuroko couldn’t participate in it much, but he found he didn’t mind. He was actually beginning to enjoy having people around him like this.

“So,” Kagami said during a lull in the conversation, “Kuroko. Do you specialize in anything?”

Kuroko peeled a slice of pepperoni halfway off his slice of pizza before he answered. “Not really. I go after what I can. I run into a lot of mutts.”

“Mutts?” Furihata questioned.

“Unclassed demons,” he quickly corrected himself, realizing he wasn’t aware of the typical street term. Mutts may have only been used by Nameless. “You know, the really ugly ones that vary a lot.” He was doing a terrible job at this.

“Oh, you mean squirrels!” Kawahara said.

“Right, squirrels.” _Why on earth are they called squirrels?_ “Sorry, my old group used to call them mutts.”

“Some of them are nasty little suckers,” Fukuda said.

Kuroko could feel Kagami’s gaze on him.

“Is that what you were after today?” Aida asked.

“It was.”

“Looks like he got you a little bit.”

“Just barely,” Kuroko said. “It had a sharp tail.”

 

It was after six o’clock when everyone headed outside for a walk per Mitobe’s request, according to Koganei.

“Hey, Kuroko,” Furihata said. “Are you in school?”

“No. Are all of you?”

“Most of us are. Kawahara and Fukuda aren’t, and I don’t think Kagami is either. It must be nice not to have to deal with it.”

“I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I always thought it would add a sense of normalcy to life. Like it would be something stable, something to fall back on.”

“You say that like you never went.”

Kuroko looked up from the ground to meet his gaze.

“Oh. I see. I didn’t mean to pry—”

“It’s alright. I went for most of elementary school, but then I got sucked into all this, so the two are very separate in my mind is all.”

“Furihata!” Aida said, falling back to walk by them. “Are you bothering our honored guest?”

He held his hands up in an innocent gesture.

“So what do you think, Kuroko? Reconsidering teaming up with us?”

“No offense, but no. I work best alone.” Admittedly, that wasn’t true, but it was simpler.

She gave him a friendly smile. “If you say so. Jeez, your hair _is_ really blue. What dye do you use?”

“Whatever I find,” he lied. “How did all of you meet?”

“There was another guy that brought us together, but he’s not in the picture anymore.” She hurried through the last part and Kuroko didn’t pursue it.

“Let’s get ice cream!” Koganei said loudly from the front.

Hyuuga heaved a sigh. “You lead, we’ll follow.”

“You said Kagami was fairly new, right? Where did he come from?”

“He spent some time in America,” she said. “I don’t know what happened, but he came back to Japan for some reason and stayed with his dad for a while. They worked together, but a couple months ago he died. Kagami took a little time off, but he seems to want to throw himself back into it now. I think he’ll definitely add to our team. He’s very capable.”

A cool breeze picked up and Kuroko enjoyed the feeling of it going through his hair. If he’d allowed himself to think about it, he’d regret that he’d have to leave the company of these people at the end of the night and return to his solitary life. But he kept those thoughts from his mind.

 

Kuroko opened his eyes and took a moment to absorb his surroundings. The room was dark other than the glow coming from the TV screen and it looked like most of the others had fallen asleep too. He was curled up in a corner of the couch himself. Mitobe and Koganei were sitting in front of the TV playing some sort of video game. Kuroko did a body count and sat up when he didn’t see Aida. What time was it?

Seconds later, the light was flipped on, nearly blinding him.

“Wake up!” Aida almost shouted, door shutting behind her. She must’ve been outside. “Someone’s at the bar with my dad.” Though her words were unclear, the panic in her voice was plain and had everyone up and moving in no time. An ugly feeling began to stir in the pit of Kuroko’s stomach.

In less than thirty seconds, the entire group was out of the house and running across the street. The Aida house was only a few blocks away from their bar and though they got there as fast as they could it didn’t feel like it was soon enough.

Aida threw the door open and ran inside but stopped short, causing everyone to bump into each other. In the brief moment of chaos, Kuroko grabbed his knife and held it so the blade was pressed against the inside of his arm with only the fabric of his jacket separating his skin from its edge.

The feeling in his gut was almost overwhelming as he weaved through bodies to get a view of the place. What he saw was Riko’s father lying across a table. One of his legs was bent the wrong way at the knee, a bone was protruding from his elbow, and his head hung off the edge of the table, neck far too loose for the pose to look natural. His eyes were left open, looking blank and hollow.

He recognized the feeling in his gut in the exact moment he saw a figure move in the shadows of the room and acted in the same moment. He hid himself and charged forwards without a thought. This was his fault, after all. It had to be. But his attempt was futile. If the power of run of the mill monsters was otherworldly, then the power of this creature was of another universe. Her milk white hands gripped him in an instant and he cried out as she forced him back to visibility, hand wrapped around his neck.

“Tetsuya!” she said brightly, harshly contrasting the black of her eyes. “What a surprise.” She raised her arm, lifting his feet an inch off the ground.

He lashed out in an attempt to cut her arm, but with her other hand she grabbed his wrist and bent it back until he dropped the knife. She clucked her tongue at him. “I’m disappointed in you. Have you really downgraded to this bunch?” Her long fingers wrapped tighter around his throat and his feet kicked out uselessly.

A gun fired from behind him and Aida shouted, “ _Let him go!_ ”

She looked down where the bullet had sunk into her flesh and back up at Aida. “Oh, honey. You think those bullets will do anything?” She threw Kuroko to the side, his body slamming painfully into one of the booths lining the wall. “Your arrogance is more irritating than them.”

She moved forward with inhuman speed but there was nothing Kuroko could do and for a second he thought that would be the end of Aida, but someone stepped between them faster than Kuroko would have thought possible and lashed out with a knife of his own. She grabbed his wrist with plenty of time to spare though. He struggled against her briefly and Kuroko thought he saw the faintest smile touch her white lips. “Now this is interesting,” she said before tossing him to the side and vanishing.

For several seconds after, no one seemed to even breathe.

Aida was the first to move. Her hands covered her mouth and she fell onto her knees, a sob escaping her throat. Hyuuga stepped forward then and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Kuroko had pushed himself to his hands and knees when a pair of feet appeared in front of him, offering down a hand. He took it and pulled himself to his feet.

“It knew you,” Kagami said, not letting go of his arm.

“I’ll leave,” Kuroko said. “You won’t see me again.” He’d make certain of that.

“It’s not his fault,” Aida said, her voice cracking as Kuroko picked up his knife. “You reacted before any of us,” she said. “You don’t have to go.”

Kuroko shifted his knife in his hands, and for several more seconds no one moved.

“We should get going,” Izuki eventually said. “Someone might have heard the shot.”

Aida sniffed and wiped at her eyes. “You’re right,” she said. “I just have to grab a few things,” she said as she stood and disappeared into another room.

“Should we leave?” Fukuda asked.

“Staying in a group is safer,” Hyuuga said. “Just give her space if she asks for it.”

She reemerged a minute later with a bag slung over her shoulder. Her eyes were dry and she wore a keeping-it-together mask well. “Is everyone coming back to my place then?”

The group nodded in silence.

She looked over her shoulder. “You too, Kuroko?”

“I…” He didn’t know.

She straightened her shoulders. “I’m taking your silence as confirmation. Let’s go.”

Everyone parted to let her out first and Kuroko noticed Kagami looking over his shoulder, waiting for him. He quickly replaced his knife and hurried out the door to join with the rest.

“I don’t know what your game is,” Kagami said, “but I don’t trust you.”

Kuroko looked up at him. “I don’t have a game.”

Kagami said nothing more to him on the way back, but he didn’t leave his side either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic was inspired by three things.  
> 1\. I really wanted an au where the boys have supernatural abilities because of reasons.  
> 2\. BOYS IN HOODIES BOYS IN HOODIES BOYS IN HOODIES  
> 3\. [this](http://squirnail.tumblr.com/post/51640779375) piece of art, oh man, i love it
> 
> And yeah, I got the Christo thing from Supernatural.  
> And okay, I might've gotten the neck thing from Shingeki.
> 
> Also I promise I'm not just making a bunch of hair jokes, the hair will be explained. And I definitely didn't mean for this much to happen in the first chapter, but it just sort of did, sooo yup.


	2. Chapter 2

Once at the house, Aida went straight to her room and shut the door behind her. 

“Kuroko,” Hyuuga addressed him.  “How _did_ that thing know your name?”

“I’ve encountered her before,” he said after a pause.  “My group wasn’t able to kill her, but when we didn’t see her again I figured perhaps someone else had.  She’s not the kind to just leave without making a stir.”

“But you’ve fought her before,” Izuki said.  “So this time it’ll be easier to get rid of her.”

“I’m afraid it’s the other way around,” Kuroko said, remembering how it felt to be torn through the veil between the seen and unseen.  She was the only monster he’d ever encountered that could do that to him.  But why had she left this time?  _Now this is interesting_.  He glanced over at Kagami.  What was interesting about him?  He’d moved fairly fast, but…  Kuroko’s eyes shot back to his hair.  Red.  Unnaturally so.  Could he…?  No, that was ridiculous.  Or was it?  Kagami caught him staring and he averted his gaze. 

“Let’s just all get some sleep for the night,” Hyuuga said.

“Actually, could I have some ice for my back,” Kuroko requested.

“Shit—of course, just a second,” he said before disappearing into the kitchen.

“Lie down,” he said when he returned with ice wrapped in a towel.  “Kagami, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.  She barely tossed me, but she fucking pistol whipped him.”

Kuroko slipped out of his jacket and pulled his t-shirt over his head, trying not to cringe.  It wasn’t as if he hadn’t had worse, but it still hurt.  Hyuuga seemed to expect him to lie down on the couch, so he did.

“Damn,” Hyuuga said as he gently pressed the ice to Kuroko’s back.  “How did you even walk all the way back here?”

“I had to,” Kuroko said after he was sure he had his voice under control.

“You must’ve hit something sharp too,” he said.  “You’re bleeding a little bit.  Izuki, will you get me some antiseptic?”

There was a shuffling of feet as Izuki left the room. 

“You’re going to have bruises around your neck, too,” Hyuuga observed.

“I know.”

“Kuroko?”  Furihata asked.  “Are there a lot of demons like her?  It’s just…you seem to have been doing this gig for a while, and I definitely haven’t, but I’ve never seen anything like her.”

“She’s called the Mother of Demons,” Kuroko replied, shifting his head so he was looking at Furihata.  “So she’s probably one of a kind.”

“Mother of Demons,” Furihata repeated as if to commit it to memory.

“She’s also known as Lilith,” Kuroko said.  “She’s best known in Jewish mythology to be Adam’s first wife, before Eve.  The truth is more complicated than that, but she’s incredibly dangerous.”

“When you say Mother of Demons,” Hyuuga said as he applied the antiseptic Izuki had returned with, “does that mean what it sounds like?”

Kuroko made a sound of affirmation.  “For every kind of monster there is out there, she’s the one who made the original.”

“Then who made her?” Izuki asked.

Kuroko flinched as Hyuuga touched a particularly sensitive spot on his back.

“We should wait to discuss this until Riko’s with us,” Hyuuga said.  “For now, everyone should try and get a couple hours of rest.”  He finished taping gauze to cover the wound on Kuroko’s back and passed the things back to Izuki to be returned to wherever they’d come from. 

Kuroko sat up and pulled his shirt back over his head and his jacket back on, planning on leaving because he honestly didn’t belong here.  And, regardless of what Aida thought, there was no way this couldn’t have been his fault.  It was just too big of a coincidence.  But Hyuuga seemed to read his mind.

“Kuroko.  I can’t make you stay, and I understand if you don’t want to be involved in this, but you seem to know a lot more about this Lilith creature than any of us.  And whatever your history may be with her, none of us blame you for what happened.”  Kuroko didn’t look at Kagami, but he doubted he was free of blame from at least that person.  “And Riko…our whole group…we’d just really appreciate if you stuck around.  At least until tomorrow.  Even if you could just stick around long enough to share what you know, we would be grateful.”

Kuroko blinked once, considering.  What harm could a few more hours do?  It would be morning soon anyway.  He could tell them what he knew, sparing them the contextual details, and leave them with a warning not to go after Lilith.

Hyuuga didn’t wait for a verbal answer, instead collapsing into the nearest seat and shutting his eyes.  The others quickly followed suit and Kuroko eventually left the house.  Despite his aching body and tired thoughts, he felt like he needed a walk.  Or maybe, he thought as his pace slowed, he just wanted to breathe fresh air for a while.  A couple blocks away from the Aida house, he sat down on the edge of the sidewalk and leaned his back against a chain-link fence, pulled his knees up and hid his face in his arms.  So this is what he got for interacting with people.  Someone died because he’d allowed himself a small bit of enjoyment.  His past would never leave him be.

“…Kuroko?”

He lifted his head at his name and couldn’t believe who it was that had said it.  It was nearly five in the morning, for crying out loud.  His past really _wouldn’t_ just go away.

“Kurokocchi!”  The blonde teen ran over from across the street in excitement.  “It is you!”

Kuroko stared up at him silently.

“I haven’t seen you in ages!  Haven’t heard anything about you, actually.  Aren’t you with a group by now?”

Kuroko continued to stare at him, eventually deciding to say it outright.  “Lilith’s back.”

Kise’s cheery manner changed completely.  “Lilith?”

Kuroko hummed.

“But she…she was gone.  She disappeared.  That was years ago, why would she come back now?”

Kuroko shrugged.

“Kurokocchi, you shouldn’t be on your own if she’s back.”

Kuroko heaved a sigh.  “You haven’t seen me in over two years, why do you still call me that?”

Kise tilted his head to the side.  “I’ve known you for longer than that.  And we _were_ all friends once.”

“Friends is a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?”

“We had our issues, but we were together almost 24/7.  And you’re the one that disappeared completely.”

Kuroko got to his feet, though even then he was a good deal shorter than Kise.  “And who was the one that tried to summon a devil?”  Kise didn’t respond for several seconds and Kuroko pulled his hood up angrily and started walking away.

“So we weren’t perfect,” Kise said to his back.  “But do you think you’re somehow better than us now?  Too good to even acknowledge us?  Do you even have any idea what Aomine’s become like?”

Kuroko spun around and took several fast steps back towards Kise.  “Don’t lecture me about my choices.  Don’t assume you know my reasons.  And do _not_ bring him up as if his decisions are my fault.”

Kise sighed, the fight in his voice leaving him.  “I know it’s not your fault.  It’s just…things were easier when we were a team, weren’t they?  I miss having our group together.  We won almost every fight, and we never lost a member.  And it’s a shame, really, that you’re on your own still.  I shouldn’t have yelled at you, but…just two weeks ago my group lost two people.  And if we had you, maybe….  You’re not at your full potential, Kurokocchi, not by yourself.”

“I never said I didn’t have a group,” Kuroko said.

“But you don’t, do you?”

Kuroko didn’t argue, just turned back around again, this time at a more relaxed pace.

“See you around, Kurokocchi.”

Kuroko raised a hand in a goodbye gesture, but didn’t turn his head. 

As he turned the corner, he stopped short of walking into someone.

“What was that about?”

He looked up and saw Kagami’s face beneath a dark hood. 

“It’s not actually any of your business.  Why were you following me?”

“Because.  I don’t trust you.”

“Nobody asked you to.”

“As long as you’re around us, I’m keeping an eye on you.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to much longer.”

“”Good,” he said, falling in step behind Kuroko.

Kuroko supposed he should be thankful Kagami hadn’t been close enough to make out any of what he and Kise had been saying.  He might’ve been able to piece together information from the conversation that Kuroko would rather he not find out.  But mostly he was just frustrated by the events of the past twenty-four hours and Kagami following him was just icing on the cake.

“So who was that guy?” Kagami asked from several steps behind him.

“Someone I used to know.”

“An old group member?”

“No,” Kuroko lied.

“An old rival?”

Kuroko shot a look over his shoulder.  “Why would I have a rival?”

Kagami shrugged.  “It looked like things got heated for a moment.”

Kuroko turned his head back around and jammed his hands into his pockets. 

“How do you know so much about Lilith?”

Kuroko grit his teeth together before thinking of something to say.  “Like I said.  I’ve encountered her before.”

“How?”

“The same way you encounter any other monster.”

“For some reason, I don’t believe you.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’m not trying to earn your tru—”

Kuroko threw his arm out to stop Kagami, but Kagami had already come to an abrupt halt. 

“You feel that?”

Kuroko didn’t say anything, instead drawing his blade.  He could feel it.  A shift in the air, a disturbance of all things natural.  If Kagami wasn’t there, he could enter the veil, but it looked like he’d have to do this without invisibility.  And when a head poked out from the alley ahead of them, he _really_ wished he could go completely unseen.  From its extended neck it twisted its head upside down and grinned at them.  It had been a while, but rokurokubi were never enjoyable.

Kuroko was planning on waiting for it to come closer, but Kagami charged past him, his own knife already drawn, and wearing a look that said he was ready to kill.  _You’re not at your full potential._   Kuroko gripped the handle of his blade tighter.  It was true, half his talent was wasted when he was by himself.  But without invisibility, he became almost completely defensive.  He’d never learned how to attack when the opponent could lay eyes on him—there had never been a need.

Kagami slashed at its neck again and again, but the issue with rokurokubi was that they could stretch their necks so long.  One would think this would make killing them easier, but instead it made it harder.  In this case, more neck didn’t mean more target; it just meant more neck.  There was no way to tell where the weak spot was on the incredible length of neck.  Even without being able to use his ability, Kuroko had to do something.  Kagami’s knife sliced more than it missed, but it still wasn’t doing anything.  And while he was focused on cutting flesh, the rokurokubi was coiling its neck, loosely encircling Kagami.  Kuroko realized what it intended to do, and immediately charged.  He couldn’t let it wrap itself around Kagami and squeeze the life out of him, no matter how much the guy irritated Kuroko. 

He swung his knife down in an attempt to slice clean through at least one layer of its coiled neck, but his knife stopped at soon as it hit bone—if you could even call it that.  It wasn’t like a human skeleton.  Its neck bone was made of some highly flexible and ridiculously hard material. 

It was tightening its circle, neck slowing shrinking back as the space around Kagami grew tighter.  By now, Kagami had to be aware of what the thing was planning, but there was nothing he could do at that point except keep slashing.

Kuroko ran into the alley to find the body of the creature, hoping to at least slow it down.  He found its body between two dumpsters and took a few good hacks at its legs, getting an airy shriek out of the creature.  He looked back to see if Kagami had a chance to escape just in time to see him jump straight up and over the lengthened neck that surrounded him all the way up to his shoulders.  The way he landed reminded Kuroko of a jungle cat.  A jump like that was something that _maybe_ an Olympian could pull off.  But an average human?  Kuroko seriously doubted that.

Before he could think more about what he’d just seen, the head reached back at him, jaw dropping wide open to reveal a set of inch-long teeth.  Kuroko lashed out, cutting clean through the skin that held its jaw together.  Some of the blood spattered his jacket and neck.  The rokurokubi resorted to head-butting Kuroko and slammed him against the side of a dumpster.  With the bottom of its jaw hanging loose, it lifted its head, aiming to bring its upper jaw full of sharp teeth down on Kuroko.  A fraction of a second before Kuroko would’ve made himself invisible to evade the attack, Kagami’s blade came between him and the rokurokubi, lodging itself firmly into the roof of its mouth.  The creature reeled back, recoiling its neck to pull back, but Kagami kept his grip on the handle of his knife.  Kuroko got to his feet and sunk his knife into the flesh of the thing’s neck, and began to drag the blade down its elongated neck.  The creature began to writhe when it realized what was happening, but Kagami didn’t let go of the blade he’d embedded in its mouth and Kuroko continued to slide his knife farther down its neck until, finally, he hit the spot and the creature went limp.

He fell onto his hands and knees for a moment, regaining control of his breathing.  It didn’t take long for him to feel the flow of energy from the dead rokurokubi.  Making the kill had probably been a good thing, especially after the earlier events. 

“That was smart,” Kagami said from where he stood a meter or so away, hunched over with his hands on his knees. 

“It was lucky that the mark was closer to the head than the body,” Kuroko said, getting to his feet.  “It might’ve pulled away from you eventually.”

Kagami shrugged and jerked his blade out of the already smoking body.  

“How did you jump that high?” Kuroko asked.

“What do you mean?”

“When it was circling you.  You jumped clear over it.  It had to be close to one and a half meters.”

“I’ve always been able to jump high.  My dad always called it a gift.  You know, you’re not as bad as I thought you’d be in a fight.  Even if you did stand around a little too much.”

“Like I said, I’m not used to fighting alongside anyone.”

Kagami narrowed his eyes.  “I still don’t know what your deal is.”

Kuroko sheathed his knife and started walking back towards Aida’s house.  “I told you, I don’t have a deal.”

 

When they got back to Aida’s house, she was already up and moving around, while everyone else was fast asleep.

“Where the hell have you two been?” she snapped.

“We ran into a rokurokubi,” Kagami said, pulling his hood back.

“Neither of you are leaving the house again for the rest of the day,” she snapped in a hushed tone.  “Go get cleaned up since you’re already awake.  We have a lot to discuss.”

Kagami wordlessly marched past her with his head lowered and Kuroko went along and did the same, because the girl had seen some terrible things and he didn’t want to say or do something that would crack her when she’d obviously worked up enough energy to put on a brave façade. 

“You do have a knack for attracting monsters,” Kagami said once they were down the hall and out of earshot.

“It’s not as if I’m trying,” Kuroko said.  “You can use the bathroom first.  You’re in worse shape than I am.”

Kagami went in and shut the door behind him, and Kuroko sat on the floor and leaned his back against the wall to think.  Kuroko didn’t know the genetics of Kagami’s family, but if Kuroko was generous with the possibilities,   Kagami’s hair could be natural…to an extent.  It was also perfectly plausible that he dyed it.  But with the way he’d fought and the way Kuroko had seen him jump…but did he know what he was?  If that was what he was?  Had he been involved with Nameless?  Did the rest of the group know?  Kuroko recalled Hyuuga’s comment about Miracles.  No, they couldn’t be aware of it.

Two pieces of debatable evidence hardly made a convincing case, so why did Kuroko feel so certain?  He shut his eyes and sifted through the events of the past twelve hours.  (Had it really only been that long?)  There had to be something else.  He had to have more reason than just those two things.  When he realized what it was, his eyes flew open.

            His hand slid down to rest over where his knife was concealed.  Kagami interfering with Lilith.  Kagami attacking the rokurokubi.  Kagami coming between the Kuroko and the teeth of the rokurokubi.  _Kagami’s knife._   It was the same one Kuroko had, he was certain of it.  The black handle, the dark blade, the slight curve at its end.  Kuroko had gotten his from Nameless, and he was willing to bet anything that if he got a closer look at Kagami’s, he’d see the same symbol that was etched onto his:  a circle with three X’s inside of it.  How could Kagami have gotten ahold of a knife like that unless he had been a part of Nameless?  And with his skill and hair on top of that, he had to be a Miracle.  So why was he hiding it?

            Kuroko must’ve been lost in thought a while, because a few minutes later Kagami came out of the bathroom.  He had on a t-shirt and a towel was hanging around his neck, sweatshirt over his arm.

            “All yours,” he said.

            Kuroko passed him wordlessly and closed the bathroom door behind himself.  He didn’t see the need for another shower; he just needed to clean the blood off his neck and jacket.  When he was finished, he came back out to see everyone stirring awake and Aida and Kagami in the kitchen.  Kagami was frying up some eggs while Aida watched, and putting that together with the expressions of the group when she mentioned making food, Kuroko figured she wasn’t a good cook.  But Kagami he never would have placed as someone that was good in the kitchen either.

            “Is there anything I can do?” Kuroko asked.

            Aida and Kagami small jumps, but recovered quickly.

            “I think Kagami has breakfast covered,” Aida said with a quiet smile.  “If you want to just get your thoughts together about what you know about Lilith.  I’m sure the police will be trying to get ahold of me soon and I want to have this discussion before that if possible.”  She held up a leather-bound journal that had been in her hands.  “I found some stuff in here too, but there’s not a lot of information.”

            “What is it?” Kuroko asked.

            “It’s my dad’s.  Or, it was his.  It’s a compilation of what he learned about the supernatural over the years, mostly from first-hand encounters.”

            “Your dad encountered Lilith?”  Kuroko had a difficult time wrapping his head around such an impossible coincidence.

            “More than an encounter,” she said.  “He found a way to get rid of her.”

            _So that’s why she’d disappeared._

            “But I’ll explain what I read once everyone’s up,” she said.

            Minutes later, Kuroko and Aida were passing out steaming plates of eggs that Kagami dished out for everyone. 

            “Sorry there isn’t more,” Aida said, “but for now this will have to do.  You can all go home after we share what we know about Lilith and we’ll regroup later.”

            After everyone had scarfed down their plates and brought them to the kitchen sink, they gathered again in the living room. 

            “Kuroko,” Aida said, “why don’t you start.”

            He took a small breath.  They didn’t need to know context, they only needed to know about Lilith.  “I first encountered Lilith almost three years ago,” he said.  “I was with my old group at the time, and we were young, but we weren’t amateurs.  We could handle most things without much trouble, but Lilith was another story.  None of us were fast enough to make a move on her.”  _Not even Aomine._   “She was unbelievable.  One of us specialized in long distance shooting, but she moved too quick for even his bullets.  In the time we knew her, she caused us more trouble than we’d ever known.” 

_“Momoi!”_

_Their sleeved card crashed through the window and glass shattered everywhere.  Aomine turned and jumped after her without a thought and Kuroko sent out a burst of energy that he hoped would be enough to save them from the death that would have awaited anyone else at the end of a three-story fall._

_The devil’s laugh echoing Kuroko’s ear was sharper than the shattered glass and in a fit of rage he spun around and leapt at her, shrouding himself as he went.  Her eyes hadn’t been on him at all, but somehow she still reached out and grabbed him, slamming him down on a nearby desk.  He screamed as he felt a million shards of glass cut through him, though he did not bleed._

_“Let me explain, Tetsuya,” she said with a purr.  “When you become invisible, your atoms don’t just become transparent like magic.  What you do is step through a veil.  Humans can’t see through it.  Animals can’t see through it.  My children can’t even see through it.  But me?  I don’t have to see you to know where you are.  I can_ feel _it.  I feel when you step through the veil and I don’t lose sight of your presence.  And when you get close enough…”  She snapped her fingers and his wrist simultaneously.  He screamed again, and his knife slipped from his grip.  “…I rip you back out of the veil.  You don’t get to step through an opening because I tear you clean through it.”_

 

            “There was nothing we could do to stop her.  She read our moves and it was…it was impossible.  We couldn’t win against her.  We researched all we could, but most of what we found was just history.  It explained some things, like why she was so powerful.  In Jewish mythology, Lilith is Adam’s first wife, but she was actually an angel.”

            “An angel?” Furihata repeated in disbelief.

            “Yes.  In a way, she was the original Lucifer.  She was upset that God wasn’t satisfied with her kind, and so when he created man, she made the choice to fall to Earth.  But an angel couldn’t become human, so when she fell, she became a devil.  The first devil.  She tried to destroy Adam, but God cast her from even Earth.  It was for her that he created Hell.”

            “If she was in Hell,” Izuki said, “how did she get out?”

            “Someone must have summoned her,” Kuroko said.

            “Who the hell would do something like that?! _Why_ would they do that?” Koganei exclaimed.

            Kuroko shook his head.  “We were mystified when she disappeared, but since the world remained intact, we figured somehow she must have been taken care of.  I believe that’s where Aida comes in.”

            “Right,” she said.  “One of the things I grabbed last night was my dad’s journal.  I knew if the cops found it there would be all sorts of questions, and I was hoping he’d have something about Lilith in here, since she came after him.”  She spoke of matters relating to the incident in a detached tone and Kuroko admired her strength.  “I did find something.  The date matches up with Kuroko’s time frame.  There was a serious increase in supernatural attacks when she showed up, and when he heard it was because of the Mother of Demons, he started trying to find a way to kill her.  No luck on that, but he did find a way to send her back to Hell.  It doesn’t say where he got the information, but he wrote down ingredients and an exorcism.  I guess he gathered two dozen other people and they all worked together to hold her off while…while my mom read the exorcism.”  She tightened her grip on the book, but continued.  “Before my mom could finish reading it, Lilith got to her, so my dad had to finish it.  Out of all those people, only he and one other survived.”

            “And he kept all this from you?” Hyuuga said incredulously.

            “I remember when it happened,” she said.  “My aunt came by and we traveled around for a couple weeks.  It wasn’t an unusual thing, so I didn’t think much of it, but when we came back…my mom was gone and my dad wouldn’t talk about it.”

            “Then how did Lilith come back?” Kawahara asked.

            “Could someone have summoned her again?” Tsuchida questioned.

            “Aida,” Kuroko said, “may I see the exorcism?”

            “It’s in Latin,” she said.

            “I know some Latin.”

            “Really?” she said as she passed the open journal to him.

            “Not a lot, but some.”  After all, Akashi was the fluent one.

            When he saw the page, the ancient words were impossibly small and took up several pages.  His brow furrowed as he read, and he blocked out the voices around him as he focused.  He started at the beginning and worked his way through, deciphering what he could and skipping over what he couldn’t.  When he reached the end, he thought he understood how Lilith had returned.

            “Aida,” he said, not worrying about interrupting, “did your parents understand Latin?”

            “They could read it, but as far as I know they didn’t understand it.  They used to work with another girl, and she was the one who did the translating.  I’m sure she would have done the recitation too, but she was mute.”

            “This exorcism isn’t to send her back to Hell,” Kuroko said.  “And it isn’t permanent.”

            “ _What?_ ”

            “I can’t understand all of it,” Kuroko said.  “But I can understand enough.  The key phrases are  ‘ _endurare dierum millenii,’_ which means, ‘to endure a thousand days’.  And this word— _purgatorium_ —means Purgatory.  I can explain more of it if you want, but basically, she was just sent to Purgatory for 1,000 days.  And—this part isn’t completely clear to me, but I think it’s trying to say that when the time is up, that she isn’t the only thing that can leave Purgatory.”

            “You mean…other things could have followed her out?” Fukuda said. 

            “Something like that.  Like I said, I can’t make out the finer details.”

            “But why would she give this to my dad?” Aida wondered.  “If she knew what it really was, why would she…”  Her phone rang then, and after answering she grimaced and gestured for everyone to leave.

            Kuroko left the journal on the table in front of the sofa and left the house with everyone else.  He’d shared all he knew, and he’d even found out why Lilith was back.  That was more than he’d planned.  They knew how dangerous she was.  If they chose to go after her, he couldn’t be held accountable for that.  Could he go to Akashi and say they needed to get the team back together?  They hadn’t been able to stop her before, but they were stronger now, and knew more, and maybe together…No.  Maybe nothing.  It was all about power now.  Individual power.

            Kuroko slipped away from the group and no one saw him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rokurokubi are legit in Japanese folklore and 100% creepy. Hope you enjoy the update!


	3. Chapter 3

            As soon as he was home, he walked through his sparse apartment, heading straight for the bed. The springs creaked as he dropped onto it and pulled the covers over his head.

It didn’t matter what he had to offer the group in terms of skills. To counter that, there would always be his past, and they didn’t deserve to be dragged into that. If he joined up with a group, the other Miracles would eventually find out, and these people didn’t need to worry about the power struggles that went on between the elites. But with Kagami weren’t they eventually headed down that path already?

            Kuroko rolled over and tried to force his brain to turn off, but to no avail, despite his exhaustion. In some ways, he missed the days when it had been Nameless or Akashi making all the decisions. He curled his hand into a fist. Akashi. Akashi, who had had the insane idea to summon Lilith in the first place. Akashi, who had said that the more powerful she was, the more power they would gain.

            Though Kuroko knew he couldn’t blame him entirely. After all, he hadn’t always been that way. Nameless was also at fault, for all the pressure they placed on a group of children. They must have known that they were creating monsters. Monsters of their own breed, to fight other monsters. But then Lilith had happened and overnight there was no more Nameless. And after what happened to Momoi…that was the spike that had stuck in the fracture Lilith had created, eventually splintering their team _. “We can no longer function properly together,”_ Akashi had said after not even two months on their own, and that had been the end of it.

            But Kuroko missed not being alone. He missed the feel of a team with individual edges that fit together perfectly, the seamless flow of continuous connections. As he was, he was managing alright, but with a team… _You’re not at your full potential, Kurokocchi, not by yourself_. If he was part of a team, they could eliminate bigger threats, protect more people. It didn’t have to become a power struggle. Surely they could find a way to stay out of the games of the other Miracles.

            He rolled over again. No, he knew better than to think that. They could find a way to manage two Miracles within one group—Momoi and Aomine had—but eventually they would get sucked in. Bigger prey meant less prey meant a higher chance of encounters. Neither side would back down and not only would they be fighting the supernatural then, but each other as well. Kuroko heaved a sigh. There was no easy answer.

 

            Four days later, Kuroko was at a booth in the back of his favorite burger joint, enjoying a vanilla shake when something clicked in his head. He’d been watching the muted television absentmindedly, not fully processing the subtitles he was reading, but after reading several names the pieces fell into place. They were all familiar. _…violently murdered…within thirty-six hours…possible serial killer…_

            He was on his feet and out the door within seconds after he realized what he’d just read. Overhead, the evening sky was purple and the air was calm, eerily so with what he knew had happened. Had happened in his absence. He might not have been able to save them all, but if he had been there—even if he’d just left them a way to contact him before he left—then he could have done something. Aida’s house was well over two miles, but he ran the whole way there, breathless and light-headed by the time he arrived at the door. He rested a hand on the outside of the house and rapped his fist against the door several times. If no one was home, he could check her father’s bar, but other than that he had no idea where to go.

            The door opened after several seconds and Kuroko was surprised to see Kagami standing there.

            “You picked a hell of a time to show up,” he sneered, dropping his gaze to meet with Kuroko’s.

            “I just heard—”

            “Kagami, who is it?” Kuroko recognized Aida’s voice.

            “The phantom,” he said icily as he turned and walked away, leaving the door open.

            Now able to see into the house, Kuroko saw practically everyone was there. Everyone…but was what _he_ doing there? There was nothing he could do now. What was done was done. Why had he come here? “I’m sorry, I don’t know…”

            “Kuroko.” Aida stepped forward, and her eyes looked more aged than when he’d last seen her four days ago. “I won’t pretend to know your past. And if you don’t want to join us, that’s fine. But…at this point, after what happened—after what that _thing…_ you’re either in or you’re out. I’ve never seen you fight, but Kagami says you’re decent, and your knowledge alone would seriously benefit us. It’s your decision.”

            Kuroko stood as a statue just outside the door. He’d barely been with these people a day, but he’d still ran all the way here when he heard what Lilith had done to their families. He’d barely been with them a day, yet he felt…he felt connected to them. Maybe he simply craved company, or maybe it was something more, but here he was, nonetheless.

            He wasn’t quite sure what the final thing was that made him decide, but he set his shoulders, looked Aida in the eyes, and said, “I’m in.”

            She nodded and he stepped through the threshold, shutting the door behind him.

            Inside, the atmosphere was heavy with loss. Heads were hung low and no one spoke. No one slapped him in the shoulder, no one said, “Welcome to the club,” or anything like that. Of course, he hadn’t been expecting anything of the sort, given his timing.

            “Where are the others?” he asked upon noticing a few of the group were missing.

            “Tsuchida, Kawahara, and Fukuda have already said they’re out,” she informed him. “Losing their parents was too much.” There was a pause, and then as if remembering something she asked, “Is your family alright?”

            “My family’s been gone awhile.”

            “Oh. I’m sorry.”

            “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when this started,” Kuroko replied.

            Aida shook her head. “It all happened too fast. There was no way. But does she have a reason for this? Or is it violence for the sake of violence?”

            “It could easily be without reason, but…after your father…and with everyone within this circle being a victim…”

            “I wasn’t.”

            Kuroko looked over to where Kagami was standing. “What?”

            “She couldn’t get to me,” he said. “My parents are both dead.”

            “All the same, it…” He couldn’t explain what he guessed her reasoning to be without spilling about himself, Kagami, the Miracles… And he’d literally just gotten here, and everyone was mourning. “I don’t know. It just seems too specific.”

            There wasn’t much said after that. Everyone sat in silence as the room gradually grew darker as the sun sank lower in the sky. Every single person in the room was now an orphan. Maybe because of Riko Aida’s father. Maybe because of Kuroko. Maybe because of Kagami, or any combination of the three.

            Kuroko didn’t know how long the sky had been dark for when Hyuuga suddenly said, “We should see the way he works,” with a small gesture towards Kuroko.

            “Now isn’t the best time,” Aida said. “None of us are in the best state.”

            He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. We don’t have time to waste. And our group’s been shuffled so much, we’ll need to get a new feel for things anyway. Might as well start now,” he said from the couch.

            Aida turned to Kuroko. “Well,” she said, “are you up to performing for us tonight?”

            No one mentioned Lilith, likely because they all figured if she’d wanted them to be dead, she would’ve killed them, too. The easiest assumption that could be made with no knowledge of the involvement of Miracles was that the deaths of their parents had been a warning to stay out of her way.

            “If that’s what is needed.”

            “Alright, then. I guess we’re all going for a hunt.”

 

            The night air was a good deal chillier than earlier that day and Kuroko shrugged his jacket closer.

            “We’ll split up to find something faster,” Aida said. “Kuroko, Hyuuga, Kagami, Izuki—you four go together. Mitobe, Furihata, Koganei—you’re with me. The first group to find something, call the other and wait to do anything until we meet up. We’re doing this so we can all see how Kuroko fights. Let’s go.”

            The two groups went their separate ways, and for a while no one spoke.

            “I’m interested in seeing how fight alone,” Kagami eventually said. “Since you stress how you fight alone so much.”

            “Kagami…” Hyuuga warned.

            Kuroko flicked his eyes up to look at Kagami, who was walking beside him. “Brute force isn’t everything. If you would’ve just kept slashing away at that rokurokubi, you would’ve eventually died. Don’t mock me.”

            “Who says I’m mocking you? And don’t forget I saved your ass back there, too.”

            “My ass wasn’t in danger,” Kuroko said. “It was my head that you saved.”

            “Now who’s doing the mocking?”

            “So you admit you were mocking me.”

            Kagami gaped at him and Kuroko withheld a smug smile. Perhaps he could adjust to Kagami.        

            A light sprinkle started, and within a few blocks it became a heavy downpour. The four boys huddled under a building’s outcropping, thoroughly drenched.

            “Are you sure you want to do this, Kuroko?” Hyuuga asked. “I didn’t know it was going to rain like this. We can wait for better weather.”

            Kuroko shook his head. “Monsters don’t wait for better weather.”

            “There won’t be as many people out this way either,” Izuki said, looking strangely comfortable despite his soaked clothes. But he was right. Looking around, Kuroko saw no one out on the streets. Though most of the shops in this area looked to already be closed, so that probably also played a part.

            Hyuuga shook his head. “Alright, let’s head back out.”

            As they turned a corner, Kuroko felt a tug on his jacket. He turned around and lowered his gaze to see a small child in nothing but a t-shirt and jeans, mop of hair dripping wet and stuck to his forehead.

            “Excuse me,” he said. “Do you have an umbrella?”

            Where was this child’s parents? He couldn’t be more than seven. “I’m sorry, I don’t. Are you lost? Do you need help getting home?”

            The little boy shook his head. “I don’t have a home.”

            Kuroko looked over his shoulder and saw the other three were still walking. Hadn’t they noticed the boy, too? Kagami seemed to notice then that Kuroko was missing and turned around. “Kuro— _Kuroko!_ ”

            His warning came too late, though. The little boy’s hand wrapped around Kuroko’s wrist and flung him into the street with unreal strength. Kuroko rolled several times, grit from the wet pavement sticking to his face. He drew his blade and got quickly to his feet. The boy was already in front of him, devilish grin on his face. His eyes glowed an eerie green. Kuroko racked his brain, struggling to come up with what this thing was. Childlike appearance, green eyes, strength… He jumped back when the child swiped an arm at him and noted his nails were longer and sharper than before. It swiped again and Kuroko dodged again. Child, green, strong, nails…

 

_“’Do you have an umbrella?’ That is the identifier.” Their instructor today was a specialist in rare and possibly extinct creatures. He had thick glasses and the breath of the smoker, but he rarely used references, pulling most of the information from files within his mind. Murasakibara munched loudly on a bag of chips, obviously uninterested, but the man speaking to them appeared undiscouraged. “It looks like a child, and it naturally lacks presence.”_

_Midorima glanced at Kuroko. “Sounds familiar,” he mumbled._

_Aomine shifted his arm so his elbow pressed against Kuroko’s. Midorima had yet to warm up to him, though Aomine had assured Kuroko that he was like this way with everyone at first._

_“Despite its size, it has remarkable strength. When it manifests this, its eyes glow green and its nails become claw-like. A tag team using Kuroko’s invisibility and enhancement paired with Aomine’s speed would be the most efficient combination if it came to eliminating it. However, an Amefurikozou hasn’t been spotted for almost two decades. No one is sure…”_

Why was one appearing now all of a sudden? But there wasn’t time to wonder that because it was coming at him again. And again. And again.

He heard shouting coming from the sidewalk, but he couldn’t spare the words any attention.

“Have you figured it out yet?” the child asked.

Kuroko frowned, but didn’t answer it. He desperately wanted to hide himself behind the veil right now, but he couldn’t with an audience.

“You’re wondering why an Amefurikozou is back after such a long absence, right?”

Kuroko still didn’t answer, but the pieces fell easily into place given the chance. Lilith.

The child giggled. “Momma brought us back,” it said. “Mothers love their children.”

After that, there were no more words exchanged. It was only unrelenting dodging, neither landing any blows, for the longest time. Kuroko had his blade knocked out of his hand at one point, but he pulled out a pocket knife he kept on himself and kept going at it. Truth be told, Kuroko surprised himself with how well he managed to evade attacks. Then again, Amefurikozous were known for their strength, not speed. And speed had always been Aomine’s part.

 _Damnit_ , why had he had to leave? Just because everyone else split didn’t mean the two of them had to. Momoi and him had stayed together, so _why not Kuroko too?_

A burst of rage surged through Kuroko and he shifted to the offensive, aggressively so. Hit him, hit him, hit him, hit him, why couldn’t he just land _one_ fucking blow—

His knife sunk into the child’s neck, and it glared up at him with rabid eyes as the blade separated tissue from tissue. Kuroko wiggled his knife around. It had entered from the side, but he didn’t care, he’d find the fucking spot without stabbing it again. He’d kill this thing without Aomine. He wriggled his knife further, scraping against something hard, and he knew he was close.

“I hope she does love you,” he said icily.

And then his knife cut the right spot and the creature went limp.

As it fell, he pulled his knife out and bent to wipe the blood on it off on the child’s shirt.

As he folded it to put it back in his pocket, he felt the familiar etching on its handle. “For Tetsu.”

 

_“This way you always have something to remind you of me,” Aomine said. “Just in case.”_

_Kuroko held the knife tight in his hand. “Don’t say that.”_

_Aomine grinned at him. “Don’t worry. It would take more than a few monsters to split us up.”_

He picked up his other weapon and sheathed it. When he looked to the sidewalk, he saw Aida’s group was gathered there as well. But while everyone stood on the sidewalk, Kagami stood a few steps past the curb, hood fallen from his head.

Kuroko tried to bury the thoughts the fight had stirred up. “How did I do?” he asked, keeping his tone light.

“You missed a couple opportunities to end the fight earlier,” Hyuuga said.

“I didn’t see the whole thing,” Aida added. “But from what I did see, you’ll make a nice addition to our group. You got really intense at the end, and if you’d fought like that earlier the fight might’ve ended sooner.”

“Do you know what that was, Kuroko?” Koganei asked. “I’ve never seen one before.

“It was an Amerfurikozou,” Kuroko said. “But they haven’t been around for decades. It coming back is probably linked to Lilith and Purgatory.”

From where he stood behind everyone else, Furihata clenched his fists. “I hate her,” he said quietly. “She’s the devil, I hate her so much.”

Mitobe place a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll kill her,” Koganei said. “We’ll get revenge.”

“Good,” Aida said. “Revenge is a good motivator. Just remember to keep your heads on straight.” She turned to the rest of the group. “For now, let’s head back. Tomorrow we’ll practice getting accustomed to synchronizing our fighting styles.”

Kagami held Kuroko back with a hand on his shoulder as the group began the walk back.

“Why do you have the same knife as me?”

So he had noticed too. Kuroko shrugged. “You tell me.”

Kagami took his hand off Kuroko’s shoulder and Kuroko definitely didn’t think about how warm it had been despite the cold rain. “Where did you get it?”

“Where did you get yours?”

Kagami clenched his fists at his sides. “Fine then,” he said icily.

“Kuroko! Kagami!” Aida called over her shoulder. “Hurry up!”

 

So it seemed likely that Kagami was unaware that he was a Miracle. Kuroko turned the thought over in his mind as he shifted in his corner of the sofa where he was curled up for the night. Kagami was sleeping on the opposite end and Furihata was between them with his head pressed against Kagami’s leg and his feet invading Kuroko’s space. Not that Kuroko particularly minded. But if Kagami was ignorant of what he was, how had he come to possess a Nameless issued weapon? Aida had said he’d spent some time in America…could that play into all this somehow? Was it connected at all?

Kuroko shifted again. Apparently he’d taken one too many beatings this week and his body was beginning to protest. He tried to get his neck in a comfortable position on the armrest, but only succeeded in making it worse. He just wanted to fall asleep.

“Hey,” came a hushed voice from the other end of the couch, “stop moving so much. Furihata might sleep like a rock, but not everyone else does.”

Kuroko didn’t offer a verbal reply at first, but when enough time had passed that he thought Kagami might’ve fallen back asleep, he asked, “Would you ever join a group with a Miracle in it?”

He’d held his breath, waiting for a response. If one came, it did, if not, then Kuroko wouldn’t wake him up again.

There was a long stretch of silence, but then Kagami spoke. “Maybe. It would depend what their motive was. Would you?”

Kuroko hadn’t been expecting the question to be redirected back at him. It was probably a stupid thing to ask anyone, but he wanted some sort of validation, even if it was indirect, roundabout, and the person giving it didn’t know that they were. “Not with any of the groups around here,” he said, trying to keep the melancholy from creeping into his tone.

“They’re all power hungry around here, right? I’ve heard about Rakuzan, never losing a fight.”

“Winning is second nature to Akashi and his people. Not only have they never lost, but, if the prey is big enough, they’ll jump in on fights that aren’t theirs.”

“So their Miracle boy can absorb its energy or power or whatever, right?”

Kuroko hummed in confirmation. It was strange, his relationship with Kagami. Granted, they’d only known each other for a very short time, but almost all tension from earlier that night was gone. It hadn’t been resolved and Kuroko was certain it would rise again, but for now, their exchanges were not curt or snapped.

“What exactly happened with the Miracles?” Kagami asked. “I was in America at the time, and I never really heard the whole story.”

Kuroko curled tighter into himself. “You know about Nameless, right?”

“…Nameless?”

“Nameless was the organization that the Miracles were a part of. They were recruited because of their abilities.”

“How did Nameless find them?”

 

_“Nameless went to Midorima’s parents and requested they be allowed to train him,” Aomine explained in the dark of Kuroko’s room. He’d been there almost a week now, and Aomine and Momoi were the only ones who seemed to like him. Akashi had shown an interest, but it didn’t feel like an interest in friendship. It was more like he was simply intrigued by Kuroko’s abilities. “I guess they were proud about it or something, like they thought their son was super special, so they let Nameless take him. And with Murasakibara, they went to his place while he was playing outside and I guess they pretty much pulled the, ‘Hey, kid, do you want some candy?’ and drove off with him.”_

_“They kidnapped him?” Kuroko asked in disbelief._

_“Basically. It’s just what they do. But even though it seems like what they do is bad, they do it so we can work together to protect people. And I overheard that they discovered another one of us too, so we might have another member soon!”_

_“What about Akashi?” Kuroko asked. “How did they find him?”_

_Aomine lowered his voice even more than it already was. “They found Akashi in—you can’t tell him I told you this, he’d kill me—in an asylum.”_

_Kuroko stayed quiet, waiting to hear more._

_“See, he hadn’t been there long. Only two or three weeks. His dad sent him there after his mom was hospitalized for some illness. But he threw fits, insisting they let him see his mom.”_

_“Because of his emperor eye?”_

_“Exactly. He knew his mom was going to die, and he’d been trying to tell his dad. I guess when he got desperate enough he told his dad he could see the future and that was the last straw. The day after his mom died was when Nameless brought him in.”_

_“So he never got to say goodbye?”_

_Aomine shook his head._

_“That’s terrible,” Kuroko said._

_“I…I know he seems cold sometimes, and maybe arrogant, but he can still be nice. Recently he’s just been…changing. I don’t know. It’s almost like he’s turning into two different people.”_

_“Aomine?”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“What about you? And Momoi?”_

_Aomine fell silent for a long moment. “We’re kind of like you,” he said eventually. “Monsters killed out parents.”_

_“Oh—I—“_

_“It’s okay. You’re learning about where everyone else came from, you should know our story too. And everyone already knows what happened to you. It’s only fair. We were at the park the day it happened. It was getting dark and our parents told us it was time to go home but we insisted that we just wanted to stay a little longer. Sometimes I think if we wouldn’t have protested, it never would have happened, but who knows. Maybe the ghouls had had their eye on us for a while. They came out of nowhere and they were so fast…. They killed my mom first. Did more than that, they ate her. They ate her, and my dad, and Satsuki’s mom and dad. They went for us last. I pushed her out of the way, but I couldn't get my legs moving enough to run. That’s when she used her power. She made them feel pain. She screamed the whole time she was doing it. She hated it so much—she still hates it. She’d never done it before that. Afterwards, we were on our own for almost a year. We got caught stealing food though, and that’s when Nameless found us.”_

“I’m not sure how they actually found them all. To be honest, not a lot is known about Nameless at all, especially about the day it vanished. But that was when the Miracles took to the streets. Without the organization to keep them together…or maybe something happened during the collapse…either way, they didn’t stick together. But with such powerful players on the streets, things started to change. The teams they joined became the top dogs when everyone used to be pretty much equal. And with the power so unbalanced…things just got messy.”

“I see,” Kagami said. “Have you ever met one?”

“A Miracle?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe. I doubt Nameless discovered every one that existed.”

“Do you dye your hair like that so people will leave you alone?”

“What?” Kuroko was thrown by the sudden subject change.

“I mean, no one wants to associate with any Miracles anymore, right? Except their group members. So is the reason you dye your hair blue so people will make assumptions and just stay on the safe side and not talk to you?”

“Maybe,” Kuroko said again.

“What do you mean, ‘maybe’?”

“Maybe I’m getting tired and I want to fall asleep.”

“Whatever,” Kagami said. “Just don’t move around so much.”

Kuroko pulled his feet up closer. “No promises.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry i'm so slow i'm sorry i'm trash  
> i don't even know what happened, i wanted to finish this before school started, but here i am, one week before i go back to college, and i'm not even close. i really let the summer get away from me, oh well.  
> have some backstory!  
> i'll do my best to update sooner than a month next time, ha.


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